01/20/2026
Multi-Million Dollar Lilly Endowment Grant to Amplify University of Portland ‘Stories of Hope’
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PORTLAND, OR — “Hope”—the first word in the University of Portland (UP) Strategic Plan and the anchor of its mission and values—just became the focus of a four-year story campaign.
Lilly Endowment Inc., through its National Storytelling Initiative on Christian Faith and Life, recently awarded the University a grant of more than $2.86 million, one of the largest private foundation grants in school history, to fund a project called Hope Works: Stories from The Bluff, Portland, and Beyond.
UP was one of 48 organizations across the U.S. to receive grant funding from this Lilly Endowment Inc. initiative in 2025. The initiative aims to help organizations identify, produce, and share with a wide variety of audiences compelling stories that portray the vibrancy and hope of Christian faith and life.
Buttressed by UP’s Strategic Plan, Hope, Renewal, Transformation, the Hope Works project will produce authentic storytelling via print, video, and in-person events to share content rooted in the University’s Catholic, Holy Cross charism.
The school’s award-winning alumni magazine, Portland, will serve as the editorial anchor for the Hope Works project. Magazine editor and director of storytelling Jessica Murphy Moo and UP’s Hope Works Team look forward to engaging with Gen Z audiences “living lives of active hope” through the storytelling campaign.
“Being a part of Lilly Endowment’s National Christian Storytelling Initiative is an immense honor and gift,” said Murphy Moo. “We have a longstanding tradition here at UP and Portland magazine of seeing stories as sacred engines of connection. This grant, along with the Holy Cross order’s charism of being ‘people with hope to bring,’ is really going to allow our team to usher more stories of faith and hope out into the world.”
After an initial planning phase, UP and its storytellers will begin publishing Hope Works stories and short-form videos in the fall of 2026. The campaign, which runs through the spring of 2029, will feature one in-person storytelling event each year to portray Christian faith, life, and hope in action.
“At University of Portland, we hold firm to the belief that our world needs more hope,” said University President Robert D. Kelly. “This generous funding will empower us to bring our quintessential UP hope to audiences far beyond our beautiful campus on The Bluff. I express our community’s deep gratitude to the Lilly Endowment for their belief in our mission, our capacity for storytelling, and, most of all, our hope.”
January 8, 2026
Contact: Dan Christopherson Director of Public Affairs [email protected] 503-943-8223
